Finally Ms Pillay underlined some of the few challenges with regards to access to education within Mauritius including high rate of failure at the end of primary school; high repletion at the secondary level; low enrollment of girls in science subjects; and underperformance of boys. 12.2. Violence against children Facilitated by Equality Now, African Child Policy Forum, World Vision and AfriChild, the session started with a gallery walk. The gallery exhibited un-edited children’s voices collected by Equality Now on violence against children. Participants were able to capture different experiences of children on violence within homes and other institutions as well as during conflicts. Children are indeed abused by those expected to take care of them. a. Initiatives towards ending violence against children African Child Policy Forum, represented by Dr Lucyline Nkatha Murungi, then presented current issues on violence against children. She highlighted States should address violence against children due to the current global commitments contained in the SDGs (target 16.2), African Agenda 2063, and Aspiration 7 of Agenda 2040; and high cost of non-compliance with such commitments. The presentation underscored the measures needed to address violence including commitment to the cause of ending violence against children, partnership, allocation of all types of resources including technical and social resources, and accountability to implement the commitments. The presentation shared existing partnerships including the Global partnership to end violence against children and the African partnership to end violence against children. Dr Murungi highlighted that Global Partnership is founded on the basis of Agenda 2030 of the SDGs which aims at building political will, accelerating action to end violence against children, strengthen collaboration, and provide financial support. In the Global Partnership strategies to end violence include ensuring safety, supporting caregivers, establishing norms and principles, strengthening income and economic empowerment, and providing support services and education. Tanzania, Uganda and Nigeria are pathfinder countries for the global partnership hence there is a need to learn from them. Dr Murungi also introduced participants with the African partnership which is under formulation currently. She informed that the African Partnership is not a sub-set of the Global Partnership; rather it is an independent initiative launched in 2015. The main drivers for the partnership include bringing African countries together to learn from one another; unifying voice at the regional level so that African Countries are on the same page when they appear at the global level; creating coordination among the various initiatives; and collectively show our achievements at the global level. Finally Dr Murungi underlined that the Goal of the African Partnership is political will strengthening, 21 | P a g e